


Azalyria

by solkatt (5sosninja)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: More characters to be added, Pirate AU, i guess, i'll change tags and rating and stuff as i go, not sure how to tag this yet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-12 12:04:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11161482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/5sosninja/pseuds/solkatt
Summary: In which Taeyong decides that he needs to find a mythical island





	Azalyria

Taeyong clutched the locket around his neck in his hand as he approached the chest in the attic of his childhood home. It wasn’t his first time coming up here, but a long time had passed since he last climbed up the rickety old ladder that lead to this very attic and took a proper look around it. Fifteen years, to be more specific. He’d been ten years old at that time, still a child. Back then he would climb the ladder with ease and hide out in the attic for hours on end, playing with his favourite toys, sometimes even bringing friends. At age 25, however, the whole ordeal was slightly more frightening. The attic looked almost exactly the way he remembered it from his childhood; all of his old toys, some old furniture inherited from his late grandparents, and the carving from when he and his best friend had decided to carve their initials to mark this spot as officially theirs. Taeyong smiled briefly when he glanced at the carving and immediately thought of Doyoung and reminisced the moment when they had made it. Taeyong had been eight years old while Doyoung had been seven, and excitement filled them at the thought of doing something that might make Taeyong’s parents mad. In the end, both his mother and his father had just smiled at how the two boys wanted to leave a permanent mark of their friendship. Oh. Right. His father. That’s why he had climbed all the way up here in the first place. 

Taeyong removed the chain of his locket from around his neck and opened the locket. In there he kept a small portrait of his family, including all three members; his mother, his father and himself. The last portrait of them before his father disappeared. That had been fifteen years ago. After that, Taeyong had decided to never enter the attic again. It bore too many painful memories. The attic had a window, and he would often sit there and look out over the town with his father, while his father would tell him all kinds of ridiculous but entertaining stories. At night, they would even watch the stars together. Well, on the nights his father was home. He had been a seafarer and would often be gone for weeks on end, sailing off to faraway places to complete his maps and trade goods. He had been a rather restless person and could never stay home for long, always craving new adventures, but despite that Taeyong never felt like his father was absent from his life. The time spent together whenever he came home and the interesting gifts he’d bring back for Taeyong was more than enough to compensate for the time spent away in foreign lands. But once when Taeyong was ten years old, he left on an expedition to never again return. 

He got the news when he came home from school one day to find his mother crying at their kitchen table, clutching a letter to her chest. When he entered the kitchen she had looked at him with pain in her eyes and handed the letter to him. The language used in the letter was difficult and his ten-year-old brain couldn’t quite comprehend it, but he understood this much; his father was gone and he wasn’t ever coming back. A few weeks later, a mysterious chest had appeared at their door. Taeyong’s mother had opened the chest and looked at what was inside one day while he was at school, and when he came back, it was gone. When he asked where it went, his mother refused to answer. He wanted to ask again, but something about the look in her eyes told him he shouldn’t, and so he left it alone, up until now. Here he was, right in front of the very chest he thought was gone, about to open it and finally see what it contained. He wondered how his mother had gotten it up to the attic without him noticing, but for now, that didn’t matter. He just wanted to finally know what was hidden inside. 

He fished around his pocket for the key his mother had given him earlier in the day, deciding that today, his 25th birthday, was the day he was finally ready to know where she had put the chest and see what was hidden inside it. He put the key inside the keyhole, twisted it around and then opened the chest. He really didn’t know what he was expecting to be inside, and he also didn’t quite know how to feel about what he found, but it was… a map. And a journal. He recognised the journal. It was the very same one in which his father used to write down the stories he and Taeyong created together, in those moments they spent together in this attic. Taeyong felt a pang of hurt in his chest as all the memories he had of his father came back to him once again. He carefully picked up the journal and traced the spine with his fingers, afraid that it might fall apart. Slowly, he opened the cover of the old journal and looked for a sign that this really was the right one and not just one that looked exactly the same. Sure enough, on the first page he found three very familiar names in handwritings he could’ve recognised anywhere. Lee Seungwoo. Lee Junghwa. Lee Taeyong. His father, his mother and himself. That was all the proof he needed before he continued flipping through the pages of the journal, making sure he didn’t do any damage to the fragile material.

He teared up a bit as he reread his favourite childhood stories for the first time in fifteen years. There was the one about the fairy who fell in love with a star and would fly up into space to visit it every night, there was the one about the dolphin who had to save all his friends from being captured by the giant octopus, and then there was the one he liked the most; the one about the island of Azalyria. The tale of Azalyria was one of the very few of the stories in the journal that wasn’t created by Taeyong and his father themselves, but rather a story passed down by his ancestors for generations. Taeyong’s father had first heard it from his own father, who had heard it from his father, and so on. The tale of Azalyria described a beautiful tropical island, where the flowers were eternally blooming and the sun was always shining. Azalyria was a magical paradise on Earth, located where no one but a select few could find it. These few who could find the hidden island were granted a life of eternal happiness in this paradise, if they so wished. As a child, Taeyong would often dream of one day setting off to find this mysterious island along with his parents, on his father’s ship. He would dream of the three of them living in a nice house surrounded by his mother’s favourite flowers, his father would be able to build himself a new ship, a better ship, and Taeyong would go out to explore the jungle, play with the animals and collect fruit to share with his family. It had been a nice dream, one that he used to wish to someday make real, but knew he couldn’t. He closed the journal and held it to his chest, memories of late night storytelling with his father flooding back into his mind. 

When he opened the journal again, he flipped past the story section to the few pages that were covered in doodles. Taeyong’s father had been a talented artist and used to have a separate journal for artwork, but in this one, the one he dedicated to his wife and son, he would sometimes let Taeyong borrow his quill and ink and create his own doodles. Taeyong smiled when he saw his old doodles. All of them looked like absolute messes, and yet his father had only ever told him words of encouragement. He flipped past the doodled pages to see if his father had added any last notes before his mysterious disappearance fifteen years ago. He found notes dated to the very same date that his father had left on the journey that came to be his last. Taeyong was unsure of whether he dared to continue reading or not, but after a short moment of contemplation he decided that he should go on with it. 

 

_26th of August, 1671_

_This might be the very last time I write in this journal. Not only am I running out of space, but it is also possible that this is the most dangerous journey I will ever go on. Crossing through Dead Man’s Hand is a huge risk, but it is one that I am willing to take. I was shocked when I found the map in Nakamoto Isamu’s shop the other day, but this has to be it. The legend has to be true. The guidelines are exactly the same. Following Northeastern Starry Road from Dead Man’s Hand all the way up to Mermaids’ Mist and beyond. As far as I know, only a handful few have made it back to Karathytia alive after crossing directly through Dead Man’s Hand, but I need to try. There is no other path known to man that leads to Mermaids’ mist. Legend says that no one has ever made it back alive after crossing through the Mist, but I am determined. I have to do this for my father, and his father before him, for every person leading up to whom the tale originates from. I have to do this for my darling wife, for our treasured son, and most of all, for myself. The call from the sea, I can feel it in my bones. I have to find Azalyria._

_Lee Seungwoo_

 

As Taeyong finished reading the note, he didn’t even hesitate before he reached into the wooden chest once again, this time to pick up the map. Could it be true? Could Azalyria, something he had always thought was just a figment of his ancestor’s imagination, truly exist? He glanced at the parchment map, immediately recognising his own homeland, the island kingdom of Karathytia. It was a large island located in the tropical zone, in the western part of the southern hemisphere. Surrounding Karathytia were the neighbouring islands of Cylaen, Teranyn and Jadenym. On the other side, in the northern hemisphere, not shown on this map, laid the two giant kingdoms of Arya and Cyndin. Those were all the kingdoms he had learnt of in school, the rest of the world’s geography had been deemed unnecessary knowledge as most Karathynian citizens would never make it further away from home than to Elygria, the central kingdom of the world. Going to Elygria, however, was usually never a good thing. Taeyong shuddered at the thought and turned his attention back to Karathytia on the map. He found his hometown, Daenam, in the middle of the east coast. Daenam was one of the largest towns in Karathytia and could possibly even be considered a city. Daenam’s harbour was huge and the most important trading port in all of Karathytia. The three most common professions in this town were fishermen, merchants or working for the Karathytian royal navy, which was based in Daenam. Taeyong himself had taken up a job in the navy once he reached the age of eighteen. Much like his father, Taeyong had fell in love with the sea at a young age, and wanting to feel a closer connection to the man who had disappeared from his life, he had decided that joining the navy was the best way to do so. Thus far, he had participated in three major expeditions to Jadenym, Arya and Elygria, and multiple minor expeditions to the smaller islands surrounding and belonging to Karathytia. It wasn’t the same as his father’s seafarer life, but it was as close has he could come to it. Reminding himself to not get lost in thoughts and focus on the important matters at hand, he noticed the dotted line on the map starting from Daenam and leading out into the sea. 

He took a proper look at the line and noticed that it was bright green; his favourite colour. He realised that it must have been his father who drew the line, as bright green was not very commonly used ink colour, and his father had only bought the ink at the wish of his son. The dotted line lead exactly the same way as described both in the tale of Azalyria and the note in his father’s journal. From Daenam it lead to Cape Jynx, onwards to Lagoona Island, to Dead Man’s hand. From Dead Man’s Hand the Starry Roads branched out and the ink line followed the Northeastern one past Blackbeard’s Cliff, all the way up to Mermaids’ Mist and beyond. The line ended in the typical red X, seemingly in the middle of the ocean, nowhere near close the nearest kingdom. As Taeyong realise that his father must’ve passed through Mermaids’ Mist, he understood why he had never made it back home again. But seeing this map, seeing the line that his father had drawn, Taeyong was filled with a sense of determination. He folded the map, put it in the journal, closed the chest and climbed down the old ladder once again, journal tucked into the inner pocket of his vest. He rushed past the living area where his mother was reading a book and rushed straight forwards to the front door of his childhood home. His mother stood up and made her way over to him.

“Taeyongie? Why are you in such a rush?” she asked, disappointed that her son seemingly wasn’t at least staying for dinner, on his birthday of all days. Taeyong stopped for a moment and turned back to look at his mother. She was a petite lady in her 50’s, hair starting to grey and wrinkles forming around her eyes, but to Taeyong she was still as beautiful as ever. “I’m sorry, Mother, let me explain,” he replied. He took her hands into his own and began explaining why he was in such a rush. He told her about the note in the journal, about the path marked out on the map, and about the plan he had just conjured up. She looked him into the eyes and stroked her son’s cheek with a knowing look in her eyes, tinted with sorrow. Taeyong was slightly confused by the look as he didn’t know what it meant, but in his haste to leave he dismissed it as nothing. He leaned down to kiss his mother’s cheek and he told her goodbye before he pulled on his shoes and left.

Taeyong was running, running straight down towards the harbour. He was a man on a mission. He was going to quit his job in the navy. In most other kingdoms around the world, you couldn’t simply quit, you had to be dismissed, so he was fortunate to live in Karathytia. He was going to gather his five closest friends and tell them all about his plans. He was going to use every last bit of his savings if he so needed to build himself a proper ship, and together with his friends they were going to recruit a crew. He didn’t care how long it would take him, how much it would cost or if he would die before he reached his goal, this was something he needed to do. The sea was calling to him. He was going to find Azalyria

**Author's Note:**

> And now you have been introduced to the story! This is the first time I actually attempt to write a long, serious fic, and I'm really excited to write this! Hope you enjoyed!


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